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Recurrent intragenomic recombination leading to sequence homogenization during the evolution of the lipoyl-binding
Marina V Omelchenko1, Kira S Makarova, Eugene V Koonin
1Department of Pathology, F.E. Hebert School of Medicine, Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, Bethesda, MD 20814-4799, USA.
Abstract:
The lipoyl-binding domain is often present, in one or several copies, in the E2 subunit and, less often, in the E1 and E3 subunits of 2-oxo acid dehydrogenase complexes. Phylogenetic analysis shows evidence of multiple, independent intragenomic recombination events between different versions of the lipoyl-binding domain in various bacteria and eukaryotic mitochondria, leading to homogenization of the sequences of the lipoyl-binding domain within the same enzymatic complex in several bacterial lineages. This appears to be the first case of sequence homogenization at the level of an individual domain in prokaryotes.